"This is so weird," I cried out, this being the hundredth time I tried to uninstall this shitty app on my phone.
Tightening my grip on the phone, I glared at the screen which displayed this app called [The System]. The system my ass, It doesn't start up, it does not do shit except hang my phone from time to time.
I sighed and left the phone down on the table.
No use stressing about it. Right now was my time to relax and this was my chill zone. The Sweetbucks cafe, every day I would bunk college to come here. Living the slow life. The seat next to me was empty because I'm bad at making friends.
Sighing I smile at the white heart pattern my coffee had on it. I closed my eyes and tried to relax again.
When was it? I realised life had no meaning. An existential crisis was what I was going through.
Life was easy when my parents decided what I had to do with it. You are born, you learn the ABCs, You get into school then college and then you fail. With parents like mine, when you fail your exams you don't just fail in college, you fail in life. Oh, what a disappointment I have become. Sorry, dad. Sorry, mom.
It's a simple plan in the beginning. Unless you are born poor or with no parents. In which case, your life sucks from the beginning. But even then you would still have a purpose which was to get a better life.
Ever since I failed to enter the prestigious college, my father intended me to get in. My life was given back to me. All of a sudden I was given back the control of my life and I did not know what to do with it. So I took a year off, got myself stuck in a gaming spiral.
Then I was pressured again by my parents to start doing something. Since I was doing nothing, wasting my time playing games. I got into whatever college I could get in so I could finish my graduation. But then what?
A year of playing games was the most fun I have had in my whole life. It was fun. Gaming was fun so I figured I wanted to have fun my whole life. But how would I do that? There could never be an never ending game that wouldn't get boring at some point
A loud ring of my phone brought me back to reality. This happened all the time, I ordered coffee only to go daydreaming until it turned into cold coffee. Gulping it down in one go I picked up my phone to see what the ring was all about.
Dark blue words on a white background. It looked like someone changed my phone's os or something. This damn virus! I tried to tap at the screen in hopes something will change and it did.
Name: Tristan
Strength: 9
Agility: 8
Intellect: 100
"Uh." Grabbing the phone by both hands I looked at its screen from as close as I could.
Intellect was on a whopping hundred while my agility and strength were in single digits. This virus or the so-called game did have a sense of humour. I let out a hollow laugh at the game's estimation of me. Come on all that intellect and no strength and speed, what was this?
The screen changed again now displaying another message telling me about quests. This virus really was something else.
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I got out of the cafe while checking the other features of [The System]. Opening the app I was presented with many other icons: Forum, Shop, Quest, Stats, Inventory, Base setup. Let me just say it, a lot to take in.
I tapped the shop icon which revealed a site like most shopping sites nowadays. Except being completely empty. Moving on I tapped the quest icon, the list shown to me at least wasn't as empty as the shopping feature.
-> Initiation:
Find a secluded area to complete syncing with the system. The syncing process will begin when the player accepts the quest.
Rewards: 100 points.
Accept this quest
I was walking when I saw this little quest. Why do I need to get to a secluded place? Thinking about how ridiculous the situation was, I tapped yes without any second thought. What could a phone virus even do to me?
The next thing I know I'm lying down on cold hard concrete with people surrounding me. Some of the gathered strangers pulled helped me back up on my feet. After convincing some of the more concerned strangers that I was fine and back on my way again.
They strangers told me how I just fell unconscious all of a sudden. It didn't feel good knowing that this happened after I tapped yes on the prompt on my phone.
Speaking of which, I checked my pockets for my phone only to feel the insides of my empty pocket. After that, I checked all of my pockets and my phone was nowhere. I looked back at the place where I fainted.
I ran over and searched around that spot with no results. The only conclusion was that it got stolen. Some fucker stole my phone while I was out. Fucking strangers, it must've been one of them but they were long gone now.
"Hah," I cried out at the blue words in front of me, my jaw was wide open, “what?”
The light blue prompts disappeared the next moment and I was left on the busy street looking like an idiot. What should I do now?
My legs were already walking towards the direction of my home.
I held back the urge to say it until I reached home. I guess mostly because I thought it would be stupid. But now sitting down in the comfort of my own house I was free to act stupid. I called out, "Status."
Name: Tristan
Strength: 9
Agility: 8
Intellect: 100
“Holy mother of god,” I covered my eyes. This was actually happening. When I saw the blue words hanging in the air in front of me it became hard to stop my lips from curving up.
“Quests.” I called out again.
-> A capable Player:
Raise the strength, agility and endurance stats to 10 within 30 days.
Rewards: 100 points, Random Ticket.
-> Recover your tools.
Recover the lost phone or get a new phone to access other features of the system.
I laughed, my eyes glued to the blue words hovering right in front of my face. My gaming addiction is this bad? Did I just become a schizophrenic? Is this me hallucinating?
I had so many questions with no answer in sight. But it was starting to get fun and so I called out, “shop.”
My command wasn't answered like the last two times. It seemed like I needed to get a new phone after all.